By Stefan Djordjevic / sdjordjevic@eurohoops.net
Happy Casa Brindisi has been on an impressive run this season so far with the potential to make it the best campaign ever in club history.
The Italians hold the second spot in the domestic league with 15-5, following Olimpia Milano (17-3), and their most recent win came against none other than Segafredo Virtus Bologna.
Great track record when it comes to the Italian League but Brindisi has also been participating in the Basketball Champions League and they didn’t have too much trouble balancing the two.
They got past Darussafaka Tekfen and Filou Oostende in the regular season, together with the reigning champions Hereda San Pablo Burgos, and now have a tough task of coming out of Group I where they’re pinned against Hapoel Holon, Pinar Karsiyaka, and Tofas.
Brindisi played out three games in the Round of 16 and all three were finished within a very narrow margin as they went down to the wire with one possession deciding everything. They got past the two Turkish squads while Hapoel Holon got them with a two-point advantage, for now.
| GAMES | STREAK | GAME POINTS | POINTS | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Team | P | W | L | % | Last 5 | For | Agt | +/- | FA | AA | |
| 1 | Pinar Karsiyaka | 3 | 2 | 1 | 66.7 |
|
229 | 216 | 13 | 76.3 | 72 | 5 |
| 2 | Happy Casa Brindisi | 3 | 2 | 1 | 66.7 |
|
245 | 241 | 4 | 81.7 | 80.3 | 5 |
| 3 | Hapoel Unet-Credit Holon | 3 | 2 | 1 | 66.7 |
|
243 | 238 | 5 | 81 | 79.3 | 5 |
| 4 | Tofas Bursa | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
|
226 | 248 | -22 | 75.3 | 82.7 | 3 |
Josh Bostic filling D’Angelo Harrison’s big shoes
While Brindisi features a well-balanced roster led by coach Francesco Vitucci, D’Angelo Harrison was the main star of the show.
The American was one of the competition’s leading scorers with 19.3 points on average and took upon his shoulders many challenges in crunch time as he led Brindisi to a win after win. Unfortunately, the guard fell victim to a left-knee injury for which he was successfully operated on in late February.
Nick Perkins, Darius Thompson, Derek Willis, and the rest of the squad are more than capable to be competitive on their won but it seemed as though they needed some kind of push as the results started oscillating.
And a push, indeed, they received. The club brought in another American scorer in Josh Bostic who wasted no time to get adjusted to a new environment.
The 33-year-old has been playing all across Europe during the past 12 years and started the season with Reggio Emilia, however, while his stat lines were almost always impressive, it seems as though he has never been so comfortable as he is now within Brindisi’s ranks.
Bostic played six games so far with the team, three in BCL and three in the Italian League, and has been averaging 17.3 points, 3.8 boards and 2.2 assists.
However, his most impressive stat comes from the shooting percentages. He has been shooting over 50% from the field and the same from the three-point territory specifically since joining the team, his career-bests if he keeps going at it.
The team won both games in BCL when Bostic was a part of the starting lineup and he has already been compared to D’Angelo Harrison who managed to score 20+ points in four consecutive games this season.
Bostic has done it in the last two BCL duels (as well as against Virtus in LegaBasket) and there’s no sign of stopping as he seems to have gained the coach’s trust, and will most likely be starting the games going forward which means the crowd can expect a lot more from the elite scorer.
? Best signing of the season? @MrBoomBostic22 dropped 21PTS, fueling @HappycasaNBB W against Tofas Bursa! #BasketballCL #Road2Final8 pic.twitter.com/SPTXKXcGEU
— Basketball Champions League (@BasketballCL) March 17, 2021
Photo Credit: Basketball Champions League